The present invention involves a flange having an axial opening which can be pushed onto a pipe into a desired position.
It is known to provide flanges on the ends of pipes, such as for example waveguides, so that the pipes can be easily connected with other sections of pipes or to input or output channels of various instruments.
The use of such a flange with a waveguide having an approximately rectangular outer cross section is disclosed in the German Pat. No. 1,806,361 which provides a push-on waveguide flange which is designed to be initially placed onto the waveguide in an oblique position and is then form-fittingly connected with the waveguide when it is pivoted into the plane of the frontal face of the waveguide. The connection of such a flange with the waveguide is accomplished through the use of corresponding grooves and strips in the respective elements. A drawback of this type of fastening is that the waveguide is only properly centered, which centering is required for electrical reasons, after it has been securely connected to the counterflange which occurs by fully tightening the flange connection bolt. With the original oblique attachment of the waveguide to the corresponding component to which it is to be connected, for example to another waveguide or instrument, the friction which is created along the frontal face of the waveguide may be so strong that it becomes impossible to properly center the waveguide and, consequently, the bottom of the groove in the waveguide becomes deformed by the protruding ledge in the axial opening of the flange. Since it is desirable to have a low reflection factor for the entire waveguide train, this effect becomes a serious drawback. Furthermore, with such an arrangement, the cutting of the grooves into the waveguide at the point of installation is a relatively complicated process since it is necessary to produce oppositely disposed grooves in the waveguide in two different cross-sectional planes.